Jaycee Dugard's 18 Years in Captivity

Following the sentencing of Philip and Nancy Garrido for the kidnapping, imprisonment and rape of Jaycee Dugard, whom they had abducted at 11 and held captive for 18 years, Judge Douglas Phimister allowed the release of an abridged version Dugard's grand jury testimony, described the events of her kidnapping and the conditions in which she was held hostage.

Dugard's story is harrowing and sometimes difficult to read. The Garridos grabbed her one morning while she was walking to the bus, shocking her with some kind of stun gun and forcing her into their van:

"I could see this — I mean, I didn't really get a good look, but somebody, you know, kind of — a voice saying something about directions, you know, 'Do you know where' — and then, all of a sudden, his hand shoots out and I feel tingly and like losing control, and I'm in the bushes, trying to go back, and someone is dragging me [...] And I heard voices in the front, and the man said, 'I can't believe we got away with it,' and he started laughing."

Dugard was taken to the Garridos' home in Antioch, Calif., where she was placed in a "concealed compound" in the backyard. Philip Garrido began to rape her — he called the sexual assaults "runs," saying that Dugard was "helping [with] a sex problem" — and threatened her with a stun gun; she was alone, with the exception of a cat, for much of her first year there, and didn't meet his Nancy Garrido until well into her imprisonment.

Philip Garrido was later sent to prison for a parole violation. Nancy told Dugard that he was on an "island" for a vacation; he soon returned, although the sexual assaults came less frequently after Dugard gave birth to her first child in 1994, and even less frequently after her second child was born in 1997. Sometimes, Nancy Garrido would "take [a] run for" Dugard — i.e., "have sex with Phil so [Dugard] didn't have to." (Indeed, Philip Garrido told Dugard that "he got [her] so he wouldn't have to do this to anyone else.") Both Garridos were smoking meth frequently, and Philip was paranoid; he told Dugard he heard voices, and bought "bionic ears" to listen for police.

With the birth of Dugard's second daughter, the Garridos and Dugard "started... acting like a family," and Dugard stayed because, as she says, she felt like she had nowhere else to go. In 2009, Garrido was called in for a parole hearing and took Dugard with him, instructing her to give her name as "Alissa." But when parole officers began questioning her, she fell apart under the pressure; Garrido, in another room, confessed to the kidnapping. "You need to tell me your name," the parole officer told Dugard. "I can't because I hadn't said my name in 18 years," Dugard told her. Instead, she wrote it down.